print files .prn

[Lorete]

Can .prn files be opened and their contents viewed on screen.
How can this be done

 

[Opinicus]

Can .prn files be opened and their contents viewed on screen.?
How can this be done?

I was going to say "associate them with WordPad" but I just
tried it and it's a serious mess. Actually you get the same
effect by right clicking on the file and picking "View". Why
would you want to do this? It's all binary (or quasi-binary)
data, much like you get in a jpg file.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Yes .. open the files with some program that will view them, e.g.
Notepad, Wordpad, Word, or any specialty viewer. You can look at any
file, most of the time. However, depending the the printer driver that
created these files, you may see gobbleygook or you'll see something
that makes sense to you. There is nothing standard about output from
printer drivers. All it is is something saved to a file rather than
being send to the printer.

Being able to view the files may not be useful to you. Why do yo want to
do this? What are your expectations?

THe only thing I can think of is that the file might give you a clue
about what "language" the printer instructions are in, e.g. HP's PCL, or
PostScript, or whatever.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[Gordon]

However, depending the the printer driver that
created these files, you may see gobbleygook or you'll see something
that makes sense to you.

prn files are not necessarily created by printer drivers. You can save Excel
files in prn format, which AFAIK is a type of CSV.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Yes. Of course you are right. In fact, becuase the extension never
really means anything in Windows it could be anything. You can rename
Word Doc files to have a *.prn extension and Word will open it just fine.

I think the message to the OP is that they have to know what it is they
have and then deal with it accordingly. This applies with everything.
It's just that most of the time the file extension is a good clue.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[lorete]

My students sat a powerpoint exam and saved their file as a .prn file. I am trying to open the file and see their original powerpoint presentation in order to award them marks
Thanks to all for the helpful replie

----- Opinicus wrote: ----

Can .prn files be opened and their contents viewed o screen.
How can this be done

I was going to say "associate them with WordPad" but I jus
tried it and it's a serious mess. Actually you get the sam
effect by right clicking on the file and picking "View". Wh
would you want to do this? It's all binary (or quasi-binary
data, much like you get in a jpg file

 

[Rob Schneider]

Suggest you ask the students to do it "correctly" from PowerPoint, or at
least ask them how they did it so you know what to do. The *.prn
extension really says nothing. I would even like to suggest that if
this was an exam about PowerPoint, and they saved as something other
than PPT or as a PowerPoint template, then they should be marked down if
not fail.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms